Did you know that about one in five of all food poisoning incidents can be attributed to mishandling food in the home?+
There are many things you can do to minimise the risk of food borne illness:
• Most food poisoning bacteria grows at temperatures between 5°C and 60°C - the “temperature danger zone”. Keeping food out of the temperature danger zone will slow down or prevent the growth of bacteria.
• When cooking a large batch of food to store and eat later, subdivide it into shallow containers and refrigerate or freeze it immediately. Cooked food should be refrigerated as soon as possible and not allowed to cool at room temperature first. (To cool food quickly, place in a container and stand it in cold or iced water, stirring frequently. Make sure food has cooled completely before covering it with Multix Cling or Multix Alfoil.)
• Don’t thaw food at room temperature or by putting it in hot water. Thaw frozen food completely in the refrigerator, or in the microwave if cooking immediately.
• Cover foods before refrigerating and store raw foods below cooked foods. Multix Cling is ideal for covering foods for storage as it helps prevent the growth of bacteria on the surface of the wrap, before the cling touches your food.
• Check the temperature of your refrigerator - it should be 4°C or below. The freezer compartment should be -18°C or lower.
• Wash hands thoroughly before food preparation, after going to the toilet, and after handling pets or raw food. Use soap and warm water, rubbing for at least 30 seconds.
• Avoid cross-contamination by making sure that bacteria do not have a chance to hitch-hike from raw material onto cooked food. In between handling raw and cooked foods, wash all utensils such as tongs, knives and chopping boards with hot soapy water.
• Use separate chopping boards for cooked and raw foods and for different types of foods. Different coloured boards are now available in most supermarkets to make separation easier.
• Disinfect chopping boards used for raw food at least once a week in a solution of weak bleach (1 tsp bleach per litre of water), or an anti-bacterial cleaning product. Better still, put them in the dishwasher.
+ Food Safety Campaign Group - 1999
